Life

You know the feeling when your head is too busy with daily life and too full with random thoughts that there's no room for anything else?

I usually write things down to make space for new things 

but sometimes I can't find the words to describe the things I want to "extract" from my mind 

and they stay in there whirling around until they find peace.

There was no room for new things in my head the last couple of months.

There was no peace either ...

When I flew to Belgium a few days ago 

to be with a dear friend who lost someone very important to her 

I didn't know that being away, being with her and going to the funeral, however heartbreaking it was,

would bring me peace.

The truth is that thinking about death almost forces you to think about life.

I bought a new notebook and started writing. 

Home

Listening to a random playlist, "I feel home" by O.A.R started playing, right as I was about to start writing.

"I feel home when I see the faces that remember my own
I feel home when I'm chillin outside with the people I know
I feel home, and that's just what I feel

Home to me is reality and all I need is something real, I feel home"

I can't get over how nice it is to feel home somewhere.

And even though me and J are already talking about our next travels,

right now it's home we want to be.

A week ago being home got even more fun, because that's when we got this little furball :)

Hector, the newest addition to the family!

In the picture above he's staring at the lens cap dangling from my camera - it's actually pretty difficult to frame him awake & not moving too much :)

See? :D

For those who follow me on Instagram. Sorry for the cat picture overload ... I can't help it. :)

Bungenäs

Pretty much exactly five years have gone by since I first set foot on Gotland,
the place that is now my home.
I've lived here for almost 4 years and there seems to be no end to new places to discover.
I live on a magical island!

Yesterday was spent exploring this old limestone quarry that later turned into a military training facility.
Although it is far from a natural landscape with it's deep water-filled quarries and other remains of industrial activity, it is nice that the military stepped aside so that us mere mortals can enjoy it instead :)

A little house by the sea

One of the reasons why we haven't had much time for things outside of work this spring:
our first renovation project! 

We're not entirely finished (is a house ever?) but the rest can wait until after the summer.
Today we were there with one single purpose: to enjoy the view!

Pictures & Routines

Seemingly insignificant photos can bring back so many memories of a specific moment in time.

What looks like just another picture to you can mean a whole lot more to someone else.

I think that might be why I have unlimited amounts of random pictures saved on my computer and external hard disks that I just can't part with. 

The picture above reminds me of the third edition of our yearly old school festival. I didn't even take it myself, but it reminds me of all the time we spent shopping, preparing & decorating, of a possible brief moment of irritation wondering why we even bother ...
And then the first guests arrived :)
Of course there will be a 4th edition!

This picture is taken in our vegetable patch, an experiment that grows a little in size every year. 

I'm not the best at taking care of plants - mine have to survive regular periods of neglect - but so far there haven't been too many casualties.
I'm still optimistic about the harvest - plants seem to be very forgiving.

These two pictures were taken during a lovely little roadtrip to the south of the island. 

It's so easy to get stuck in the routine of working too much and doing too little fun stuff, but it's really easy to break out of it too. In this case it only took a car ride.

Another really easy way to break the workweek-routine is inviting people over for BBQ-nights during the week, for no reason at all.
These pretty flowers grow all around our terrace. They will hopefully witness a lot of dinner parties this summer!

Throwback Thursday

We've been home for 2 months now and I'm finally getting around to ordering prints of our holiday pictures :)

I'm completely amazed at how fast time flies. School's out and the tourists are slowly but surely taking over the island again. What happened to the spring?

We definitely underestimated the amount of work that was waiting for us when we got back but we're finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Soon it's time for some time off again: Swedish summer shall be enjoyed to the fullest!

Dad & his Girls

I love these photos so much I decided they deserve a place on my blog.

Happy Monday!